EPA Urges States to Reduce Use of Refuse Landfills

The Environmental Protection Agency, acknowledging that the nation’s growing amount of garbage has become an urgent problem that requires federal leadership, released a report Thursday encouraging state and local governments to increase recycling and waste reduction by 15% by 1992.

The EPA’s proposed strategy, which does not include any mandatory regulations, will utilize $15 million next year for education about alternatives to continued reliance on landfills.

“This is the first sign that the sleeping giant is awakening after a decade-long nap,” Dr. Richard Denison, a scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said. Throughout the 1980s, the EPA has been silent on the issue of solid waste disposal, considering the matter to be the responsibility of state and local governments.

EPA Assistant Administrator J. Winston Porter called solid waste disposal “an urgent problem” and said at a press conference that one-third of the nation’s landfills will be full in five years. Currently, 80% of all waste is put into landfills, 10% is incinerated and 10% is recycled.

“The program’s cornerstone is recycling,” Porter said, adding that it saves resources and can be quickly implemented. The program aims at increasing the national level of recycled waste by 15% and to increase waste incineration by 10% while decreasing the amount of garbage sent to landfills by 25%.

Because of California’s large population and industrial base, it has become a “target” state for the program, Porter said.

“California is one of the tougher areas. Sometime, incinerators will have to come into urban areas. Just relying on recycling and landfills isn’t going to solve the problem.”

Environmentalists said the plan is only a first step in managing the nation’s solid waste crisis.

Denison said he was pleased with the proposal but that the EPA needs to take further action by imposing strict regulations for incinerators and landfills, setting long-term goals and awarding grants to states with acute waste problems.